For artists who've never participated in TOAF, our three-day outdoor art fair attended by over 115,000 visitors, the preparation and setup can seem daunting. But, with some planning and helpful tips from the TOAF team, it can be a successful and stress-free event. Introduced four years ago, ‘Booth Camp’ has been instrumental in making this a reality, and this year's Booth Camp was heralded as the most successful to date!
What is Booth Camp, anyway? This one-day session held was on Saturday, May 11, 2019 at Artscape Sandbox, and brought together seasoned artists, staff and new TOAF participants to share their experiences. We covered everything an artist may need to know from load in, tent rental and set up, to self-promotion for the fair, self-care, and leveraging the artist services available through TOAF.
Our aim is to make the experience as smooth as possible from start to finish. Did we mention it was free for participating artists? Whether it's a seasoned fair participant or an artist’s first time showing at TOAF, there’s always something new to learn.
Tammy Yiu Coyne provides tips on self-promotion for Artists
This year’s event was held at Artscape Sandbox, and supported by our Major Sponsor, Higgins Event Rentals, who generously donated a stunning refreshment station for over 100 artist attendees, as well as provide an in-depth (and reassuring!) in-person tent demo.
Refreshments for our artists, generously provided by Higgins Event Rentals
This year’s presenters included Ania Harmata (Artist Relations Coordinator), anahita azrahimi (Executive and Creative Director), Tammy Yiu Coyne (Communications Manager), as well as Michelle Planche and Alyssa Ramnath from Paradigm (Logistics).
A big thank you to our artist presenters: Keight Maclean, Ivanna Hreshchuk, Robert Mitchell, Richard Ahnert and volunteers, Bethany Lam and Wing Lam Leung who donated their time to make this session our most well organized and well attended.
Left to right: Keight Maclean, Ivanna Hreshchuk, Richard Ahnert, Robert Mitchell, Ania Harmata, and anahita azrahimi
Our team with volunteers Wing and Bethany (centre): after stacking up all of the chairs, it's finally a wrap!
